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| A poster for IMLD. Poster by: UNESCO |
Whether
we think about it or not, language plays an important role in everyone human’s
life. Today 21st
February 2015 marks the 16th International Mother Language Day. International Mother Language Day aims to
promote linguistic, cultural diversity & multilingualism of each and every
culture, encouraging the use of language to preserve heritage and culture
across the globe. The theme for International Mother
Language Day 2015 is: Inclusion in &
through education: Language counts.
International
Mother Language Day or IMLD has been celebrated across the globe since February
2000 after being established in the year 1999 by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
At a day like IMLD, it’s very important to highlight the reason why this
day was observed by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). The history of this day traces back to an incident which
occurred at the year 1948 at South East Asian country Bangladesh. When Pakistan's
government declared Urdu as the only nationalized language in the year 1948,
the Bengali-speaking mainstream population in East Pakistan started demonstrations
against it. Even though the Pakistani government banned the protests, on 21st
February 1952, students of the University of Dhaka & other campaigners of
East Pakistan prepared for a big protest & continued the demonstrations. On
the same day, the Pakistani government police officials fired at the protesters
& killed 4 students. After the killing of 4 Bengali speaking students by
Pakistan, the protests were continued non-stop by Bengali speakers for their
right to use their own mother language. Later on 29th February 1956,
Bengali became a legitimately documented language in Pakistan. However, the
Bangladesh Liberation War at the year 1971 led East Pakistan to become a
sovereign country known as the current Bangladesh with Bengali as its
authorized national language. On 17th November 1999, UNESCO decided
21st February to be International Mother Language Day & the
first International Mother Language Day was observed on 21st
February 2000. As the world is observing an important linguistic day as
International Mother Language Day, it’s compulsory for us to have the knowledge
of the widely spoken languages in the world. The top 10 most spoken languages
of the world are; Chinese, Hindi, English, Spanish, Arabic, Bengali,
Portuguese, Russian, Japanese & German. According to UNESCO, around the world, almost 6,000 or more languages are
in danger of becoming extinct. These languages are rapidly disappearing due to
circumstances such as those who speak the languages are dying, certain
languages integrating, and the fact that these languages are more prominent
than others.
International Mother Language Day is a great day to learn about other
cultures and languages, as well as to highlight the importance of preserving
lingual diversity. According to UN statistics a language
disappears every two weeks on average at the world. Many governments and
non-governmental associations like local NGO’s across the world use the day to
make known strategies to promote language learning & hold up language
diversity. Since its establishment in the year 1999 by UNESCO, International
Mother Language Day has been inspiring solidarity based on understanding,
tolerance & dialogue among the world countries.
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